


And Blacks We Shall Be

by ChelseyB



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 11:09:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28581027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChelseyB/pseuds/ChelseyB
Summary: What started as a fairytale ended in heartache. Bellatrix, Andromeda, and Narcissa, the three princesses of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. Originally written in 2012.
Kudos: 2





	And Blacks We Shall Be

It started as a fairytale.

Bella, Andi, and Cissy. The princesses of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. Each so perfectly suited to her place. Bella, the eldest, temperamental and domineering. Andi, the middle, quiet and overlooked. Cissy, the baby, pampered and admiring.

Cygnus and Druella Black were not loving parents, strict rather than doting, and naturally the girls turned to each other, each fulfilling a role their parents left vacant. Bella, the protector; Andi, the counselor; Cissy, the devotee. As the years went on, as the demands of being an aristocratic Black grew harsher and the tongues of their elders grew sharper, each girl found her own way to deal. Bella plotted to become something larger than any Black had ever dreamed. Andi silently planned her escape to a new life. Cissy turned inward, her outer shell becoming ice that reflected only perfection.

Although each had her own private dream, they were bound together by the bonds of sisterhood that were nurtured by something that ran deeper than blood, and all assumed it would always be that way. The Black sisters they would be, forever and always.

**oOo**

"Andi?"

Andi roused herself at the whisper. "What is it, Cissy?"

"I'm scared."

Andi sighed, tired, but that didn't stop her from throwing open her duvet. "Come here, then."

Cissy ran across the room in her long white nightgown, diving into the bed. She snuggled close to her big sister, seeking the warmth and comfort she provided. When she was settled, Andi looked down at her.

"What's wrong? It's only raining, not storming."

"Mother and Father are fighting," the younger girl whispered.

Andi frowned. Cissy's bedroom was closest to the stairs, and her fear of having her door closed meant she was often an unwilling witness to their arguments. Their all too frequent arguments. "It's nothing," she comforted her. "Uncle Orion probably made some stupid comment about Father only producing girls again."

Cissy didn't seem reassured. "I don't like it when they fight."

"I don't, either," Andi said softly, pulling her sister closer.

The two young girls had just drifted off to sleep again when a loud crash woke them both. The unmistakable sound of smashing glass followed, and the girls cringed at the sounds that the door couldn't block.

"YOU STUPID BITCH!" their father roared.

"Can we go to Bella's room?" Cissy begged.

Andi didn't need to be asked twice. Hands clenched, they dashed down the hall together, trying to ignore the shouting and hoping their parents didn't hear the patter of little feet in between accusations.

"Bella!"

She was already awake. "I know." She slammed the door behind them, providing some barrier against the noise, heedless of the sound the slam itself made.

When she was cuddled in between her older sisters, Cissy looked up at them, her long blonde hair spread across the pillow like a halo. "Why do they fight?"

"It's what parents do," Bella answered with all the assurance of a newly-turned ten-year-old. "They're not sisters like us."

"That doesn't make sense," Andi countered. "Don't they love each other?"

"Yes, but we have the same blood. We're special." She smiled reassuringly, twirling one black curl. "Don't worry. Someday I'm going to do something great, and they'll be so pleased they won't argue anymore."

"I just want it to stop and us be happy all the time," Cissy said plaintively.

"Sometimes I want to run away," thought Andi, not realizing she'd spoken aloud.

"Why would you leave us?" Cissy asked, her eyes round and anxious.

"Oh, I didn't mean it."

Bella frowned at her. "Don't be silly, Andi. Sisters stay together forever."

"I know." Andi smiled. "Forever."

**oOo**

For Bellatrix it was all about the Dark Lord.

She heard the whispers from the moment she started Hogwarts, whispers that grew into rumors and then facts during her seven years of school. By that time she knew she would serve him; he embodied everything her parents believed, and she knew this was the way to become more than they had ever envisioned for her. It was her first act upon leaving Hogwarts, the honor of that black mark enhancing her milky flesh. It was also the first time she realized that pain could give pleasure.

He was impossibly handsome. The dark hair, the porcelain skin, the eyes that pierced her soul. The way he caressed her name with his tongue. And his  _ power _ … with a word, a gesture, a mere  _ thought _ , he could perform the impossible. And he wasn't greedy, the Dark Lord. He taught her things no one else knew, propelled her to unimaginable heights, made her a far better witch than a lifetime of study could. He would make the world a better place, and she would help.

Her second act upon leaving school was to marry Rodolphus Lestrange, but that, too, was for the Dark Lord. The only love in that marriage was a love for the one they served. Nevertheless, it was what was expected of her, the alliance of two pureblood families, and had she not become such an important lieutenant, she would have done the next thing that was expected of her and produced a pureblood child to carry on their lines.

When the Dark Lord said jump, she leaped. For surely with this act or that command, this mission or that kill, he would finally see her true value. He would accept her as the only possible woman even remotely worthy of standing by his side. He trusted no one as he trusted her.

Strange, for a woman so immersed in the dark, that hope would be her one shining light.

Even after so many years in Azkaban, her loyalty never wavered. Perhaps that sacrifice would be what finally brought them together. She clung to a series of 'if onlys', never wavering in her belief that the next task would bring her reward. If only she can retrieve the prophecy … if she can kill Albus Dumbledore … if she can prune her family tree … if she can keep his treasure safe … if she can deliver Potter … if she can stand by his side until the day she dies.

Someday, Bellatrix knew, she would be his.

**oOo**

"Are you – are you really going to do it?" Cissy asked in a voice of awe.

"Of course I am." Bella carelessly tossed her robes into her trunk. With a roll of her eyes and a wave of her wand, Andi repacked them neatly as her older sister continued. "I've been waiting for this for a long time."

"But won't it hurt?"

"Of course it will hurt, it's a tattoo." Bella ceased packing, her dark gray eyes shining as she imagined the look on the Dark Lord's striking face as she made the ultimate, irrevocable act of commitment. Nothing, not finishing Hogwarts today nor her inevitable marriage to Rodolphus, would mark such a turning point in her life.

She couldn't wait.

Though clearly torn between admiration and trepidation as only fourteen-year-old little sisters could be, Cissy continued to press for details. "When will you do it?"

"Tonight. I'll take the train home with you after the Leaving Feast, of course, and Roddy is coming for dinner. Then he'll take me and we'll get it together."

"That's so  _ romantic _ ," Cissy said dreamily, rolling over on Bella's four-poster bed. "Are you going to marry him, Bella?"

She shrugged. "Probably. We've been going together for long enough, and Mother and Father approve. The Lestranges are a very old family."

"But you love him, don't you?"

Bella hesitated. She was fond of Roddy, certainly; he treated her well, and she enjoyed his affections. But  _ love _ … love was what she felt for the Dark Lord. Love was the willingness to give her mind, body, and soul, her life, in a heartbeat. Love was absolute devotion.

However, she knew Cissy still dreamed of a knight in shining armor, and so she humored her. "I suppose. There is much more to marriage than love, you know." Andi, still quietly packing Bella's trunk, snorted softly, and Bella realized she needed to talk to this sister before it was too late. "Cissy, be a dear and go see if I've left my cloak in the common room. I can't find it."

Cissy glided out of the room with her long hair trailing behind her, effortlessly graceful even at a young age, and as soon as the door closed Bella pulled a tie out of Andi's hands and took them in hers.

"I know about the Hufflepuff boy, Andi."

She stiffened but kept her face blank. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't play stupid; it doesn't suit you. I'm talking about the Mudblood sixth year you were seen with on the last Hogsmeade trip."

Andi's eyes flashed momentarily. "If you're referring to Ted Tonks, he's a nice boy but there's nothing going on there," she said, quickly schooling her features.

"There had better not be," Bella warned. "No one would stand for it. Not I, not Mother and Father, not the Dark Lord."

"I don't  _ care _ what the Dark Lord thinks."

Bella jerked her hands away as if burned. "Don't be a fool, Andi. You don't have to get the Dark Mark if you don't want to, but the world is changing. The Dark Lord is ushering in a new era. Don't screw it up."

Desperate to make her understand, she pulled her younger sister to her. Andi had always been different, a hint of rebelliousness despite being a prefect, and she had felt her slipping away these last few years.

"You scare me when you talk about him," Andi said in a low voice. "You're so … fanatical, almost."

Bella bit back a sharp retort, knowing that no one, not even her beloved sisters, could understand the relationship she had with the Dark Lord. "I only say this because I care about you, Andi. You're a Black daughter, you could have everything. Don't throw it all away because of a boy."

Andi withdrew, giving her a scornful look. "You're throwing it all away because of a man."

It was this standoff in which Cissy found her sisters upon her return, and Bella was grateful for the interruption. The strangest sense of having to choose between her sister and the Dark Lord popped into her head, and it wasn't something she wanted to contemplate.

"I couldn't find your cloak, sorry."

"It's alright, Cissy," Andi said in a falsely cheery voice. "We just found it under her bed. You know how messy Bella can be."

Cissy giggled, dropping in between her sisters. She looked from one to the other, sighing. "It's going to be so lonely without you here next year, Bella."

"You'll have me," Andi protested with mock indignation.

Cissy smiled. "I know I will, but I want you both."

The older girls each slid an arm around her, and Bella grasped Andi's fingers in hers, catching her eye. "You'll always have us."

**oOo**

For Andromeda it was all about love.

She became aware at a very young age that her parents chose to show their love, if that's what it was, in ways that were less than satisfactory. When the daughters met their expectations, they were dutifully praised; when they failed, they were punished. Nothing else. And she knew that she was often the most disappointing, possessing neither the passion of Bellatrix nor the charm of Narcissa. By the time she reached Hogwarts, she was looking for a way out, unable to fulfill her parents' wishes even if she wanted. And she did not want.

Then she met Ted Tonks. He was her very antithesis: troublemaker versus prefect, loud versus proper, Hufflepuff versus Slytherin, Muggleborn versus pureblood, happy versus repressed. Opposites must attract, for she tumbled into an all-consuming love of the type she never knew existed, a hunger that left her gasping for air and ever yearning for more.

This was the point of no return. Could she leave her entire life behind for one man? She didn't fool herself for one second that she could have her cake and eat it, too; Blacks did not run away with a Muggleborn with nothing but the robes on his back and a heart that belonged to her. Forgoing the life of a snobbish aristocrat was easy; leaving her parents was harder. Saying goodbye to her sisters was pure torture, but a tiny part of her whispered that if they truly loved her in return, they wouldn't make her choose.

She would be lying if she said she never reconsidered her choice. And then, on a warm June day, she lay in a bed at St. Mungo's and fell into the deepest, most intense, most instantaneous love she'd ever known with a tiny ball of ever-changing hair and massive lungs. From that point on, her world consisted entirely of Ted and Nymphadora, and that was all she needed.

Never did Andromeda consider both could be ripped from her protective grasp.

**oOo**

"What do you think you're doing?"

Andi stifled a gasp when the door to her room swung open. "Bella? What are you doing here?"

"Cissy told me what you were planning." Bella stepped into the dark room, their younger sister behind her, looking guilty.

The blonde girl wrung her hands. "You can't leave, Andi. You simply can't."

"What I can't do is stay here," Andi argued. "I'm not like you."

"You're making a grave mistake, Andi," said Bella. She caressed her talon-like wand, and although her sister had never aimed it at her in anger, Andi couldn't help but feel threatened. "You have everything anyone could ever want, and you want to run away with a Mudblood?"

"Don't call him that," Andi snapped, drawing herself to her full height to stare her older sister in the eye. "He has a name. It's Ted, and we're getting married. He'll be your brother-in-law in a few days."

Bella smirked, an ugly expression on the otherwise beautiful face. "As if I would ever consider something like that family. Not to mention Mother and Father. You know what they'll do if you run away."

"Burn me off the tapestry at Aunt Walburga's? Refuse to speak to me ever again? Withhold my inheritance? I know exactly what they'll do, and it shows just how much I'll gain by marrying Ted. He loves me for me, not for my name or my blood or my family's wealth."

"But Andi, what about us?" Cissy pleaded.

Andi softened. Her relationship with her parents had always been strained, but that had only strengthened her bond with her sisters, even if she didn't always see eye-to-eye with their beliefs and choices. "This changes nothing between us. You're of age now; you can come see me whenever you want, and we'll owl. Just like when Bella married Rodolphus."

"No," Bella interrupted coldly. "It's not like that at all. Marry the Mudblood, and you'll be no sister of mine."

Andi took a step back as if she'd been hit, reeling in mind if not body. True, she and Bella were no longer the intimate confidantes of their childhood, but they were  _ sisters. _ Even if the eldest Black daughter had changed dramatically since joining the Death Eaters, as they called themselves, Andi knew she was still Bella inside. She'd turned a blind eye to the worst stories of her sister's misdeeds, refusing to believe she was capable of such horrors, and for the first time she wondered if they could possibly be more than rumors.

"She doesn't mean that," Cissy exclaimed hastily, looking from one to the other.

"Yes, I do," Bella said. Andi could feel her sister's scorn burning her skin. "Do you think the Dark Lord won't care if my sister associates with filthy Mudbloods? If she whelps his brats, tainting the Black blood? I can't afford that sort of stain in my family."

"That's all you care about!" Andi spat, filling with anger. "You and your precious, bloody Dark Lord. Newsflash, Bella: that monster will never love you."

Suddenly the wand was in her face. "What you do is no longer any concern of mine. Leave if you must. But don't ever insult the Dark Lord, or you'll regret it."

"Bella – Bella, please, calm down," Cissy begged, tugging at her arm. When she didn't receive a response, she turned to her other sister, stroking her hair. "Andi, think about what you're proposing. What would people say? You can't leave us. You can't leave  _ me. _ "

Neither sister paid her any mind. "This is why I'm leaving. You're just like Mother and Father, both of you. You, Bella, thinking you can bully anyone to do your bidding. And even you, Cissy, always so aware of what others think of you."

Cissy recoiled, and Andi felt a stab of regret. She hadn't meant to hurt her. "Concern with appearances and reputation is not a bad thing," the youngest sister said stiffly.

"Of course it's not. I didn't mean that you're shallow. I just – you're old enough to make your own choices. I'll owl you with our address when we're settled, and you'll come see me, won't you?"

"No, she will not," Bella said before Cissy could respond. "You can't have it both ways. Black or Mudblood, which is it?"

Andi's heart broke as she gazed at her two sisters, one dark and angry, one fair and scared. And that's when she knew she was about to lose both forever. It had always taken the combined force of herself and Cissy to counter the passionate will of Bella. Out of all three, Cissy was the good girl. She would do as she was told, even if it cost her a part of her heart.

Andi hoisted her bag in one hand, taking one more long, last look around her childhood room. "Be careful, Bella," she said, gazing into those heavily lidded eyes that shone with so much emotion. Bella didn't speak, and Andi moved past her, kissing the blonde head behind her. "Take care of yourself, Cissy." She paused in the doorway, holding onto the frame for support. "I love you both." And then she was gone, slipping past the room of her oblivious, sleeping parents and out the massive front door into the dark, stormy night, apparating to a small London flat where Ted waited with open arms and an understanding shoulder.

**oOo**

For Narcissa it was all about family.

Spoiled and sheltered, she was firmly convinced from a young age that she was part of the greatest family ever. A lineage to be proud of, parents who considered her their crowning achievement, and two big sisters to keep her from harm. Adolescence, of course, proved that perfection was but a mere façade, but she never imagined she would lose her sisters as she did. One to a perverse worship and a terrifying prison, the other to a life society dictated was beneath her.

From that point on she devoted herself to her own little world. They were the epitome of a model family, and woe to anyone who messed with that. Even as the Dark Lord reappeared, as Lucius was pulled back into his inner circle, as her eldest sister returned twisted beyond recognition, as her son's life was threatened, she clung to her family, desperate for nothing more than it to emerge those dark times whole.

One night in bed, early in their marriage, Lucius whispered to her a deadly secret known only to a select few. There was a prophecy that a child soon to be born would be the one to defeat the Dark Lord. Lucius wasn't concerned; the early knowledge of the prophecy meant that the Dark Lord could kill the child before he became a threat. What mere babe stood a chance against the greatest wizard the world had ever seen?

After Lucius rolled over, asleep, she held a hand to her gently swelling belly. She vaguely remembered James Potter from school as a boy always running around with her cousin Sirius, but she had no memory of a girl named Lily. It didn't matter. She was to be a mother, too; their children would be the same age. Although she supported the Dark Lord and his cause, she couldn't help but feel a twinge of pain for the mother about to lose her baby.

Years later she remembered that moment, though it wasn't a mother who lost her child but the other way around, as she pressed a finger to that child's neck, thinking only of her own son. When that child, soon to become a man, told her that her son was alive, she suddenly had the urge to apologize, but she didn't. Instead she stood, poured all her strength into her mental shields, and lied to the greatest Legilimens alive, a man who would strike her dead for even the slightest hint of an untruth.

The Dark Lord had taken her sister's sanity, her husband's honor, and her son's childhood. He had taken her other sister's husband and only child, her own niece. He would take no more from Narcissa.

**oOo**

Cissy pondered the dress she held in front of herself, gazing into the mirror. This really wouldn't do; it was a party to celebrate the engagement of a Black and a Malfoy, a social event for the season. Perhaps they needed to check out Twilfit and Tattings. Madam Malkin's clearly did not have what she needed.

"What about this?" Bella asked, holding up a dress of lilac.

Cissy pursed her lips. "No, that's not it. I think we should look elsewhere."

"If we must." Bella sighed impatiently; she hadn't wanted to come, claiming a busy schedule, but Cissy had implored until she had given in. Cissy knew all too well what her sister's schedule consisted of these days. "I'm going to try these on, and then we'll go."

Once Bella disappeared into the changing rooms, Cissy summoned Madam Malkin to clean up the discarded dresses and began to browse listlessly, passing time. As she rounded one rack of hideous robes, a small being collided with her legs. Startled, she looked down to gaze into a pair of wide brown eyes that were so impossibly familiar.

"Who's you?" the little girl asked with a hint of a lisp.

Smiling, Cissy crouched to the small child's level. She'd always adored children and planned to start her own family as soon as she and Lucius were married. "I'm Narcissa, sweetheart. What's your name?"

"I'm Dora and I'm three!" she declared, counting to three on her chubby fingers with great concentration. "I'm not 'posed to talk to you. You're not Mummy or Daddy."

"No, I'm not. Would you like to go find your mummy now?" Standing, she offered her hand, and after a moment's consideration with a charming frown on her face, Dora beamed and took her hand.

They had only passed two racks of robes before the girl ran off with a squeal of joy, throwing herself at a woman standing near the register who was looking around frantically. "Mummy!"

"Nymphadora, my darling, there you are!" The mother swept the child into her arms, squeezing her tightly, and Cissy smiled. What a lovely name. "What did I say about the stores?"

"I mustn't run 'way and I mustn't talk to nobody but you and Daddy," Dora recited as if from memory. "But Mummy, that nice lady rescued me."

The woman looked toward Cissy, relief written all over her face. "How can I ever thank you? She can be such a … handful …"

Cissy stared in shock, gazing into the familiar brown eyes of the sister she hadn't seen in four years. "Andromeda."

"Narcissa," Andi said evenly, clenching her daughter tighter. Cissy's niece … "I'm sorry my daughter bothered you."

Cissy knew it was forbidden. She knew Bella would throw a fit, knew Lucius would lecture, knew her parents would be furious. But she couldn't help taking a step forward, brushing a piece of brown hair away from the girl's face. How like Andi she looked. "It was no bother. Nymphadora is … a beautiful name."

"It's Dora!" the girl protested loudly.

Andi wore a hint of a smile. "Unfortunately she has a distinct distaste for it. Darling, this is your … Aunt Cissy." She glanced at Cissy questioningly.

An aunt. She was an aunt, one step away from a mother. Cissy told herself to walk away, knowing no good would come of this conversation, but then the girl spoke again. "You're pretty," she said with a dimpled smile.

Cissy couldn't help returning the smile. "Why, thank you, de- oh my!" The girl's brown locks had indisputably changed to the same white-blonde shade of Cissy's own hair.

"She's a Metamorphmagus," Andi said quietly.

"How disgusting."

Cissy whirled around at the voice, guilt creeping across her face like she'd been caught with her hand in the jar of biscuits. Bellatrix lounged languidly against the wall, watching the scene with amusement.

"Are you my aunt, too?" Dora piped up excitedly.

"Hush, darling," Andi said.

Bella smiled, walking up to the sisters. "Yes, hush, little girl. Didn't your Mudblood father teach you to respect your elders?"

"What's a Mudblood? Is she talking about Daddy?"

"How dare you try to poison her mind," Andi hissed. "Don't say that in front of her."

Cissy was back in that bedroom four years ago, watching her sisters face off, knowing it wouldn't end well. "We should go," she said quickly. "Bella, we have things to do."

With one last sardonic smile, Bella brushed past them. "Yes, let's. I feel dirty already."

Andi grabbed her arm as Cissy made to follow. "Cissy, please, she's your niece. I owled you …"

"Come, Cissy," Bella demanded from the doorway.

Cissy was torn, looking back and forth. The sister she missed dearly on one side, and an adorable niece now sporting pink hair and green eyes, watching her with the adoration young children showed for all that was shiny and new. Another sister on the other side, a woman who needed Cissy desperately although she wouldn't admit it. And on that same side was Lucius and all that he promised – love, commitment, stability, children, the perfect family she'd always wanted. Cissy hardened her heart; it had been Andi who had made the choice to leave. No one had forced her.

"Pink is such an unnatural color," she muttered, walking away.

She pretended she didn't hear the high-pitched voice call, "Bye-bye, Aunt Cissy!"

**oOo**

There was no funeral for Bellatrix Lestrange. No grave to weep over, no tombstone to visit.

Part of Narcissa was saddened, the part that still idolized big sister Bella. Hidden inside were good memories of her sister, and she would have been lying to say she hadn't wept. The tears were for far more than the death at Hogwarts, though; they were for three little girls sleeping in the same bed, for a comforting squeeze of the hand on her first day at school, for the "You are so very beautiful" on her wedding day. For the soul that had died long before the body. But Narcissa knew she was the only one who remembered Bella Black, and she knew that it was right to have no memorial.

Andromeda was too caught up in her grief to even think about the lack of a funeral for her eldest sister, but if she had pondered the idea, she wouldn't have been sorry in the slightest. On Bella's part, Andi had ceased to be her sister the day she left Black Estate. For Andi, Bella was no longer her sister the day she learned who had put her twenty-two-year-old daughter in that room at St. Mungo's. Andromeda's only regret was that Molly Weasley deprived her of the privilege of revenge after Bellatrix committed the most detestable crime of killing her own flesh and blood. No, she did not want anything to do with the empty shell of Bellatrix.

There was, however, a funeral for Nymphadora Lupin.

**oOo**

"Andromeda? Andi?"

Andromeda blinked once, twice, trying to clear the haze she seemed to permanently inhabit these days. No tears, though; her heartbreak ran too deep for such a physical manifestation. When the figure in front of her materialized into a person, she sucked in her breath. "Narcissa."

Her younger – her only – sister swallowed, an uncharacteristic show of nerves. "I wasn't sure if I should come."

"Then why did you?" Her voice was flat, emotionless; she didn't have the energy to be bitter.

"I'm so sorry, Andi," Narcissa said, and there was no mistaking her sincerity.

"Are you sorry that my daughter is lying in a coffin or that your sister put her there?"

Narcissa flinched. She took a long time to answer. "I'm sorry that I failed you." When Andromeda didn't reply, she continued. "I wanted so badly for the three of us to stay the same always, but when it was clear you and Bella would never reconcile … she needed me more. Can you understand that? You had your – Ted, but Bella … she was so far gone. I thought if I just stayed by her side, I could keep some remnant of humanity alive inside her. And then she went to Azkaban, and I had Draco …" She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry that I couldn't do that, and I'm sorry about your husband and your daughter."

"Well, you still have your family," Andromeda said, her voice barely above a whisper. "Amazing, isn't it, how a family so close to You-Know-Who could emerge unscathed?"

"Alive doesn't mean unharmed, Andi," Narcissa said carefully. "Lucius is a shell of the man I married, and Draco – he's just a boy, and he was forced to do things that will haunt me until the day I die."

For the first time in weeks, Andromeda felt like laughing. She settled for a twist of something that resembled a smile. "How awful it must be to have to console your son, to hold him in your arms and soothe, after his nightmares. Nightmares of what he did to others, not of what was done to him."

"You don't understand, he had no choice –"

"Everyone has a choice!" The small bundle in her arms stirred, and Andromeda moderated her voice. "Everyone has a choice, Cissy. Bella chose to follow him. I chose to leave. You chose to stay. Draco chose to become his father. My husband chose to keep his family safe. And do you know what my daughter chose? She chose to take a stand. She wasn't supposed to be in that battle; she was the mother of a newborn, and her husband made her promise to stay behind. But she was a fighter, my Nymphadora, and she chose to make a better world for her son even if she had to give her life in the attempt. And she did. So don't you dare tell me he didn't have a choice."

A long moment passed before either sister spoke again. "Is this him?" Narcissa finally asked. "Your grandson?"

Andromeda looked down at the sleeping child, the only person who could stir her heart, the only thread linking her to sanity. "Yes, this is Teddy."

"He's named after your husband."

"He has her nose, and she had her father's nose," said Andromeda softly, barely aware Narcissa was still there.

"And she had your eyes," Narcissa said suddenly.

Andromeda lifted those eyes to meet the blue of her sister. "Yes, she did."

Narcissa peered at the tiny baby. "He's beautiful." As if aware of the compliment, the downy hair on his head turned a vibrant pink. Andromeda waited, recalling the last time Narcissa had witnessed a morph. "Oh, my. What a lovely reminder of his mother. Your – my niece had a preference for pink, didn't she?"

"Yes, she did," Andromeda whispered, overcome as much by memories of another rainbow-haired baby as by the obvious effort Narcissa was making.

"I am so terribly sorry, Andi."

"So am I, Cissy."

**oOo**

It ended with heartache.

Bellatrix, Andromeda, and Narcissa. Blacks no more. Lestrange, Tonks, and Malfoy. One gone forever, only to live in infamy. Another with an emptiness that would never disappear and a child that wasn't hers. The last with her family intact yet a sense of unworthiness.

Each spent her life seeking that childish dream, struggling to overcome what it meant to be a Black. Bellatrix died never having realized her goal, never allowing that it was unattainable. Andromeda thought she had it all for a moment in time, only to have it torn out of her heart, leaving her a shell of memories. Narcissa came the closest to her desire, though she was forced to admit that perfection didn't exist.

In their darkest moments, all three wondered if the cost was worth it. Perhaps, they thought, if they had maintained those early bonds of sisterhood, they could have ridden out the storm together.

Or perhaps they were merely Blacks, and happily ever after was a fantasy.


End file.
